Something seriously wrong

We have one database that is actually quite small, about 1.8GB. Upon moving
this db to SQL2K5 we get an error everytime we attempt to view the "Views"
folder. The error is:
Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: context (ObjectExplorer)
No more detail is available. I've gone back to the source database, removed
all views and repeated the process. Even with no views in the database we
get the same error when clicking on the "Views" folder in SQL Managment
Studio. All other db's have migrated fine.
NOW I figured I'd use the compare utility we have (We use Red Gates SQL
Compare) to compare the schema from that database to another server with an
old copy. This worked a few weeks ago, now it gives the error "Specified
cast is invalid" which sounds very likely to be related. This happens on
all servers running a copy of this database regardless of SQL Server
version. So at some point something bad was introduced. I'm just not sure
where to look, it sounds metadata related possibly but I'd hope there's some
other way of determining this other than going to a 6 week old backup and
hoping the issue isn't there.
Any help is greeted with humble thanks...we're really stuck.Tim,
Did you run the Upgrade Advisor on the DB before the move to 2005? This
might tell you something that does not migrate.
Chris Wood
"Tim Greenwood" <tim_greenwood A-T yahoo D-O-T com> wrote in message
news:uLgna8WaGHA.504@.TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> We have one database that is actually quite small, about 1.8GB. Upon
> moving this db to SQL2K5 we get an error everytime we attempt to view the
> "Views" folder. The error is:
> Value cannot be null.
> Parameter name: context (ObjectExplorer)
> No more detail is available. I've gone back to the source database,
> removed all views and repeated the process. Even with no views in the
> database we get the same error when clicking on the "Views" folder in SQL
> Managment Studio. All other db's have migrated fine.
> NOW I figured I'd use the compare utility we have (We use Red Gates SQL
> Compare) to compare the schema from that database to another server with
> an old copy. This worked a few weeks ago, now it gives the error
> "Specified cast is invalid" which sounds very likely to be related. This
> happens on all servers running a copy of this database regardless of SQL
> Server version. So at some point something bad was introduced. I'm just
> not sure where to look, it sounds metadata related possibly but I'd hope
> there's some other way of determining this other than going to a 6 week
> old backup and hoping the issue isn't there.
> Any help is greeted with humble thanks...we're really stuck.
>|||Yes I did. It only flagged a couple of sprocs with a syntax change (using
aliases in the order by clause)....
I might not have been clear. We encountered the issue during migration, BUT
then going back to our SQL 2000 servers currently in production this error
was encountered when using a specific tool. So, the issue is present BEFORE
migration.
"Chris Wood" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:eZTYegXaGHA.5004@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Tim,
> Did you run the Upgrade Advisor on the DB before the move to 2005? This
> might tell you something that does not migrate.
> Chris Wood
> "Tim Greenwood" <tim_greenwood A-T yahoo D-O-T com> wrote in message
> news:uLgna8WaGHA.504@.TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> We have one database that is actually quite small, about 1.8GB. Upon
>> moving this db to SQL2K5 we get an error everytime we attempt to view the
>> "Views" folder. The error is:
>> Value cannot be null.
>> Parameter name: context (ObjectExplorer)
>> No more detail is available. I've gone back to the source database,
>> removed all views and repeated the process. Even with no views in the
>> database we get the same error when clicking on the "Views" folder in SQL
>> Managment Studio. All other db's have migrated fine.
>> NOW I figured I'd use the compare utility we have (We use Red Gates SQL
>> Compare) to compare the schema from that database to another server with
>> an old copy. This worked a few weeks ago, now it gives the error
>> "Specified cast is invalid" which sounds very likely to be related. This
>> happens on all servers running a copy of this database regardless of SQL
>> Server version. So at some point something bad was introduced. I'm just
>> not sure where to look, it sounds metadata related possibly but I'd hope
>> there's some other way of determining this other than going to a 6 week
>> old backup and hoping the issue isn't there.
>> Any help is greeted with humble thanks...we're really stuck.
>

HELP ! Disappearing objects

We are supposed to be deploying to SQL2K5 this friday night. I've been
taking backups from our SQL 2K server and restoring them directly on our 2K5
box. Everything seems to work ok except for one of our databases. When I
expand the "views" in Sql Management Studio object browser I get an error
that says "Parameter cannot be null" and none of the objects are there!!!
All other object types seem fine and only this database exhibits this
behavior. I'm not sure how to track this down.the error message is actually this
Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: context (ObjectExplorer)
"Tim Greenwood" <tim_greenwood A-T yahoo D-O-T com> wrote in message
news:%23QwU%23MMaGHA.4788@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> We are supposed to be deploying to SQL2K5 this friday night. I've been
> taking backups from our SQL 2K server and restoring them directly on our
> 2K5 box. Everything seems to work ok except for one of our databases.
> When I expand the "views" in Sql Management Studio object browser I get an
> error that says "Parameter cannot be null" and none of the objects are
> there!!! All other object types seem fine and only this database exhibits
> this behavior. I'm not sure how to track this down.
>|||One thing that I know doesn't work in 2005 is databases in a too low compatibility mode (60 and 65,
I believe). I'd think that SSMS would give a better error message, but worth looking into.
--
Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP
http://www.karaszi.com/sqlserver/default.asp
http://www.solidqualitylearning.com/
"Tim Greenwood" <tim_greenwood A-T yahoo D-O-T com> wrote in message
news:%23dtxLQMaGHA.3304@.TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> the error message is actually this
> Value cannot be null.
> Parameter name: context (ObjectExplorer)
> "Tim Greenwood" <tim_greenwood A-T yahoo D-O-T com> wrote in message
> news:%23QwU%23MMaGHA.4788@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> We are supposed to be deploying to SQL2K5 this friday night. I've been taking backups from our
>> SQL 2K server and restoring them directly on our 2K5 box. Everything seems to work ok except for
>> one of our databases. When I expand the "views" in Sql Management Studio object browser I get an
>> error that says "Parameter cannot be null" and none of the objects are there!!! All other object
>> types seem fine and only this database exhibits this behavior. I'm not sure how to track this
>> down.
>|||And what if you query sys.objects? Are the object listed in
the catalog view? Or in the information_schema.views view?
I've hit a few flaky things like that with SSMS. Usually
when I hit the bug with the index error in SSMS, I start
seeing other object display issues until I close SSMS and
reopen. I think some, most of those are fixed in SP1 for SQL
2005.
-Sue
On Tue, 25 Apr 2006 16:51:57 -0700, "Tim Greenwood"
<tim_greenwood A-T yahoo D-O-T com> wrote:
>We are supposed to be deploying to SQL2K5 this friday night. I've been
>taking backups from our SQL 2K server and restoring them directly on our 2K5
>box. Everything seems to work ok except for one of our databases. When I
>expand the "views" in Sql Management Studio object browser I get an error
>that says "Parameter cannot be null" and none of the objects are there!!!
>All other object types seem fine and only this database exhibits this
>behavior. I'm not sure how to track this down.
>